Adrian Brown is away.

Shell announced last week that its joint venture Pearl gas-to-liquids plant in Qatar is operating at a reduced rate of production due to unforeseen maintenance required on some or all of the plants 18 gasifier units. A representative said that although the company has GTL base oils in stock, the problem is expected to reduce the amount of product available for sale in 2017. Repairs are already underway, and operations at Pearl will continue at a reduced rate until repairs are completed, the comp...

MOSCOW – Russian base oil producers are aiming to add around 1 million metric tons per year of API Group II and III capacity by 2020, according to VNIPIneft, a Moscow-based research and design institute in the refining industry. During the next five years, three refiners – Rosneft, Gazprom Neft and Slavneft (the latter is a 50-50 joint venture of the first two) – will be ready to stream high quality base oils. Rosneft and Gazprom Neft are planning to expand their total quantiti...

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — While energy reform in Mexico hasnt had a direct effect on the lubricants market, its indirect impact is proving to be positive, Pablo Fernandez del Castillo Flores, chairman of CISA Mexico, told the ICIS Pan American Base Oils Conference here Dec. 1. Deregulation had no impact on the import of base oils; there was an open market, said Castillo Flores, whose company blends Quaker State lubricants and distributes both Quaker State and Pennzoil brands in the country. What...

Key drivers for growth of automotive lubricant consumption in Nigeria and South Africa include rising prominence of the middle class population, a subsequent increase in vehicle sales, and the growth of industrialization in the two countries, according to market research firm Frost & Sullivan. The firm estimated the countries combined lubricants market at $2.1 billion, driven mainly by demand for engine oils, along with a perceptible rise in end-user demand for products such as transmission ...